Carolyn’s First Surgery

I was going to write a blog post about how 2016 can just fucking suck it, but I can’t get the words down on the blog about my Dad’s illness and passing, then my Mom’s serious illness immediately after my Dad’s funeral. Mom is doing just fine now, but I’m not sure I’m emotionally over either one of those things yet, much less being able to write about them.

Instead, I’m going to talk about how, at 43 years of age, I’m having my very first surgery.

I hate this game.

No sense having a simple procedure for this lady – we’re going full on major surgery: scheduled for a total abdominal hysterectomy on Wednesday.

It should be obvious by now that this goes into female reproductive stuff – so don’t come crying to me if you’re offended by periods, etc.

How did this all come to pass? Well, I had been experiencing some issues with urination. Yes, I know that has nothing to do with my lady parts, but things eventually got bad enough I went to see an urologist at the beginning of September. Had an exam, everything looked great, but the urologist wanted me to have a CT scan “just in case” to make sure everything looked ok.

Had the scan and went back a few days later to go over the results. He said he had good news and other news; the good news was my bladder looked great! The other news was my uterus was double the size it should be and there was a noticeable lump on one side of it. Now he did say that he wasn’t an ob/gyn, so he couldn’t say for sure, but that it was most likely fibroids.

I called a referring ob/gyn – because I didn’t have one – and had an appointment set for October 10th to check this out. Fast forward to going to my company’s Grand Meetup in Whistler, BC mid-September and had my urination issue rear its ugly head again on the day we flew back home – and had to go straight to the ER from the airport. The next day I called begging to be seen by an ob/gyn as soon as possible because there was no way I could go two more weeks (at the time) before someone saw me.

Thankfully they got me in two days later. I had an exam and an ultrasound a few days later. Definitely fibroids. Lots of ’em. In fact, there was a pretty substantial one pushed right up against my bladder! No wonder I had trouble. 😐

I tried to find a funny uterus/fibroid image – THEY DON’T EXIST – instead I found more squick-worthy photos of surgeries. Please don’t search for those things. Here are some kittens instead.

Since I never wanted to have kids and with the difficulty of simply removing the fibroids (never mind the fact that they’d grow back), my ob/gyn recommended a hysterectomy. Now there are different types of hysterectomy surgeries and you can go search for them yourself, but I have to have an abdominal one due to the size and number of fibroids. Basically, the same procedure as a c-section. They’re taking the uterus, fallopian tubes, and cervix and keeping my ovaries – but even then they won’t know for sure until they’re in there whether or not I can keep my ovaries. I hope I do, otherwise I’ll hit early menopause and have to go on hormone replacement therapy – DO NOT WANT.

The weirdest thing is that I didn’t have the most common symptom of fibroids: heavy periods. Mine were always light and lasted 2-3 days. Every other symptom: oh hell yes. By my estimate, I’ve been fighting this for at least two years now, but I chalked most of those to getting older and all the damn stress I’ve had this year already (seriously, fuck 2016). Now that I know, I’m pretty hopeful that I’ll feel like my old self again and not this old lady who feels like crap all the time.

I’ll be in the hospital for at least two days and I had to take at least two weeks off work for recovery. I also can’t drive for two weeks and not lift anything heavier than 10 pounds or do any activity other than walking for 6-8 weeks. No CrossFit! No running! No housework…ok, that one is not so bad! Guess I’ll get caught up on movies, TV shows, books, and video games that I don’t allow myself to enjoy because I could be doing “something more productive.” Like housework.

Am I scared? Absolutely. Will I be happy to not feel like shit anymore? Hell yeah. No more periods or worrying about an unplanned pregnancy: BONUS!

Hey, I’ve been through it! Still have my ovaries that get cysts and cause me pain. Actually scheduled pelvic floor physical therapy to start later this month. I wish you a speedy recovery. There are probably updated techniques since when I was opened up in 2007.